Mel Brown – Swamp Feet
Mel Brown – Ode To Billie Joe
Mel Brown – African Sweets
I can’t remember exactly where I first got a copy of this record, back in the mid 1990s. I’m thinking it was either at Red, Beans & Rice or Wuxtry records. At the time I was really into jazz and was working on collecting Impulse records. The copy I used to own was super cheap, maybe $5, but it also wasn’t in particularly great shape, but I just loved the colors, design and the title. It just seemed like it might be a really great soul-jazz record. I was more than happy with the results when I finally dropped the needle on the scratchy wax and had been looking for a better conditioned copy ever since. Finally tracked down a minty one at Amoeba Hollywood and now I can share it with you.
Mel Brown was a blues guitarist, primarily, spending sometime with Johnny Otis before releasing a series of very solid albums on Impulse in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Towards the end of his stint on Impulse he became associated with Bobby “Blue” Bland. The Wizard is his best of the 6 or 7 records he cut for Impulse (though a couple tracks from 1971’s “Fifth” might be his best work). It’s got a really sensational sound, in Brown’s guitar, but especially in the percussion and drums, which I am fairly sure must be provided by “Pretty” Purdie. The production keeps things very, very punchy with a slight echo too. It’s that sound that draws you in immediately with “Ode To Billie Joe.” I’m not too big on jazz covers of “pop” tunes, but, as Frank Kofsky mentions in the notes, this is a great cover of the original, something just dying to be sampled. Also included above are “Swamp Fever” and “African Sweets” which feature some pretty samplerific drum breaks too, making this perhaps the funkiest record that was ever cut on Impulse.
Cheers,
Michael